Paul Ryan vows to hold off on immigration reform while Obama is in office, saying the president is ‘untrustworthy on the issue’

Newly elected Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan appeared on all five Sunday morning TV news shows days after being sworn in to make clear what will change as he takes over. (GARY CAMERON/REUTERS)

New House Speaker Paul Ryan ruled out acting on immigration reform as long as President Obama is in office.

Ryan said he would not bring a bill to the floor because Obama has proven himself "untrustworthy" by trying to push through his own policy changes with executive orders.

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"I think it would be a ridiculous notion to try and work on an issue like this with a president we simply cannot trust on this issue," he said Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation. "He tried to go it alone, circumventing the legislative process with his executive orders. So that is not in the cards."

Ryan said he might pursue legislation "if we reach consensus on how best to achieve border and interior enforcement security," but would not make a deal on comprehensive changes like a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

"I do not believe we should advance comprehensive immigration legislation with a president who's proven himself untrustworthy on this issue," he said on NBC's Meet the Press.

The Wisconsin Republican, who appeared on all five Sunday morning TV news shows days after taking over the speaker's job from John Boehner, also rejected calls for federally required paid family leave — and said there's no contradiction between that position and his own insistence on setting aside time for his family when taking the new job.

"Because I love my children and I want to be home on Sundays and Saturdays like most people doesn't mean I'm for taking money from hard working taxpayers to create a brand new entitlement program," he told Meet the Press.

Ryan said he'd continue to sleep in his Capitol Hill office during the week and commute back to his Wisconsin home on weekends.

"I just work here. I live in Janesville, Wisconsin. I'm not changing that," he said on Face the Nation. "I work here from dawn until about midnight, and I'm just going to sleep in my office because it's very convenient."

But he noted he'll have a challenge in scrubbing the smell of cigarette smoke out of the office after years of occupancy by chain smoker Boehner.

"We've been talking about that. They have these ozone machines, apparently, that you can detoxify the environment. But I'm going to have to work on the carpeting in here," he told NBC. "You know when you ever go to a hotel room or get a rental car that has been smoked? That's what this smells like."

Ryan, who took the job after initially insisting he didn't want it amid a split between House hardliners and the Republican establishment that forced Boehner's departure, said he'd take cues from his members while also insisting the Republicans issue specific policy proposals instead of just knocking down Obama's agenda.

"I didn't get elected Dictator of the House. I got elected Speaker of the House," he said. "We've been too timid for too long around here on ideas. We've been bold on tactics, but we have been timid on ideas, on policies. That is where we need to go."

Ryan said that immigration reform is simply “not in the cards” while President Barack Obama remains in office. (JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS)

The House majority should propose its own overhaul of the tax code and alternative health care policy, he said.

"I'm redesigning this job. I don't think it can work going forward like it's worked in the past. I can't pick up where John let off. It has to be done differently," he told CBS. "People are starving for an alternative."

Yet Ryan also acknowledged the limits of what Congress can do in a divided government — saying he doubts they'll be able to strip federal funding from Planned Parenthood.

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Some Republicans had threatened to shut down the government over that issue, but have since passed a deal to keep funding the federal government.

"I think we need to be very clear about what we can and cannot achieve and not set expectations that we know we can't reach given the constraints of the Constitution," Ryan said on CNN's State of the Union.

Boehner, meanwhile, revealed how he tried to persuade the reluctant Ryan to take over from him.

"I laid every ounce of Catholic guilt I could on him," Boehner said on State of the Union, adding he told Ryan God wanted him to take the job. "I pulled it all out."